If NASCAR fans didn’t know who Erik Jones was before, they do now. The 18-year-old outdueled Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the Xfinity Series race Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway.
18-year-old Erik Jones wins Xfinity Series race over Brad Keselowski, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Eighteen-year-old Erik Jones won his first career Xfinity Series race Friday night at Texas Motor Speedway.
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The victory was the first of Jones’ career and earned him high praise throughout the NASCAR landscape. Both Keselowski and Earnhardt, as well as several others, took to Twitter to laud the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Never could get the @GoodysPowders Chevy hooked up to win it. Had fun tonight racing that kid @erik_jones for sure. He's a shoe.
— Dale Earnhardt Jr. (@DaleJr) April 11, 2015 “This is surreal,” Jones said. “That confidence is something I never doubted in myself. This is just amazing. We beat Cup guys tonight. I can’t wait for the rest of the year.”
The deciding moment came on a restart with 25 laps remaining. Jones was leading and positioned in the inside lane with Keselowski to his outside. The two were virtually even through Turns 1 and 2, but Jones eventually cleared Keselowski and went unchallenged to the checkered flag.
“Erik had a great car and did a great job,” Keselowski said. “We raced side-by-side for two laps but eventually he cleared me.”
Fun race tonight coming from back to the front. Great job @erik_jones Have a feeling we will be racing each other a lot more often...
— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) April 11, 2015 Texas was just Jones’ ninth career Xfinity start. He is a full-time driver for Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series and runs a limited Xfinity schedule for JGR. In 2013, a then 17-yer-old Jones became the youngest driver to win a NASCAR national series race -- a record broken by 16-year-old Cole Custer last season in a truck race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Jones’ rapid ascension hasn’t gone unnoticed. Team owner Joe Gibbs acknowledged the teenager is on the “fast track” to a seat in a Sprint Cup car and has a plan in place to get Jones to NASCAR’s premier series “kind of quick.” The most obvious option is using Jones as fill-in for Kyle Busch, who is sidelined indefinitely with a broken right leg and left foot sustained in a February accident at Daytona International Speedway.
“We’re really proud of him,” Gibbs said. “I think he won his first Truck race in his fifth race. The big thing is tonight he beat some good people, good cars up front and really quality stuff. We’re proud of him and he should be proud of himself.”
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